Tomorrow is the first round of PCAT exams....Good luck to whoever is taking it here! And tell us how it goes, please!
Good luck my fellow brethren!
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taking tomorrow morning 8am. im probably going to go to bed soon and get up early tomorrow and just read notes + possible essay topics (didnt even think about studying for this until now lol).
goodluck everyone! 99%!
goodluck everyone! 99%!
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Good luck!!!! happy after Pcat party!
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Good luck everyone. Mine is in the afternoon today
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Best of luck, Girlinthewindow & rshah816. You got this!!
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So, How was that exam? Total carnage? or just a knock-out punch?
What a relief it is to be done haha. I got out with 30 minutes extra (finished reading chem and bio with time to spare). The math and reading took all my time BUT I finished each problem and got to look over flagged and wasn't rushed for time unlike the math on pearson test 4. Also there are only 8 experimental passage questions in each section (bio and chem) so you can skip them. I skipped the ones in chemistry (didn't realize it in bio) and got a 99 in the chem section so I assure you that those passage questions were experimental. Overall got a 89 composite. Hope to hear more good news on this thread as the day goes along.
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OMG congrats, I'm dreaming for such a good score. Would you say that it was similar to the test 4? Was bio hard? I don't have any bio background so that's my weak spot. And can you please share your breakdown if you don't mind? I'm taking mine early tmr and so freaking scared 
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Im so scared for this thing. With every test i've taken i always get somewhat destroyed by 1 or 2 sections of the test. I took test # 4 today and i got completely screwed on the RC, and i got screwed for time on the QA. I'm glad to hear you did really well. Would you guys advise to skip the "Experimental" problems then? (yielding more time for the other questions?) Could you (or anyone else) elaborate on how specific it was with Bio and Chem, I herd there was a lot more about diseases and anatomical questions than gen bio questions.
I can do a quick breakdown since I know people are taking it tomorrow and this site has already given me so much.
Verbal: What can I say? It is either hit or miss on the real day. I saw some collins on (LITERALLY word for word..I was shocked even though I read it multiple times on the board.) I got a 38% and it is embarrassing to say english was my first language. My vocabulary sucks and I knew going into here that this could make or break my score (make if I don't mess up to badly so it doesn't drag my composite score, or break if I get 1%). There isn't much to say here honestly. DO the collins as practice. Know the 6 bridges because that is all it is for the analogy section.
Biology: Again hit or miss. My friends and my parents wished me luck today on the test and walking into the test I knew I could have a great test (a test full of stuff I know) or stuff I never seen in my life. Biology is "the most random subject". I have no bio background other than anatomy (only part 1) and the freshman bio course we all took. I was unfortunate and didn't get dealt the hand (questions) I wanted but I still got a 64% (not happy since I have been doing well on the other stuff). Don't let my remarks discourage anyone else. I would recommend going over all the virus stuff in collins and go over the two viral chapters in the Kaplan book. WHY? Because it is 15% of your test and it is the shortest amount of information you can read the night before (for you july 18 PCAT takers). One question can bring up that percentage.
Chem: I am really good with chemistry but I used Chad's videos to brush up and Collins tests. Chad goes way beyond the scope for Ochem but kills it for the gen chem section. What you need to know? Gas laws, grams of something in a reaction to grams of something else (like if you have 12 grams of CO2, how many grams of O2 do you have using this formula etc.). Basically if you know pearsons and collins you are set. Know the acid derivatives. (if you have any questions PM me and I can try to help). Excited to say I got a 472 (I think) which is 99%. I am sure I missed around 3-4 cause I completely guessed on two of them.
Reading: WE all know pearson test 4 SUCKS! Before I elaborate on this section, I hate reading and get distracted EASILY. I am the person that reads a page or two of a textbook (studying) and then ease drop into my surroundings or day dream (ALL THE TIME!!!). When taking the last few practice tests, I was told by a friend that best way to avoid the problem is to pretend you are interested in the passage and use the mouse to navigate you. Making yourself interested in a passage even if it the worst passage ever still helps you. You can feel what the author is saying and will know what each paragraph contributes to the passage as a whole. It takes me 2-3 minutes to read each passage but the questions go by faster because of your "interest" in them. I hope I am making sense here because I don't know how to explain it. Basically interest=better understanding of the author and passage?? Tell me if this doesn't make sense or to elaborate etc and I will be glad to. I got an 84% (I believe) on this section.
Math: 92-93% in this section. I struggled with time before but got it down before test day. I had to relearn calculus since the last time I took it was in high school (3 years ago!). Pearson test 4 made me worry as I only had 30 seconds left when finishing. I guessed on 4 of them and made educated guesses on another 3. The best thing to do is if you know it answer it, if you don't click and flag. I did that, had plenty of time to look at flags and am proud to say that I had a WHOLE 4 minutes remaining.
Writing: I just looked at the writing section yesterday. I kid you not, I looked at how to format it and looked the examples Kaplan gave. My topic was pretty easy and I wrote the four paragraphs Kaplan outlines and I hope I did well.
Composite:89%... the reason why it is this "high" is because my chemistry scaled score 472 (I think) raised the overall scaled score giving me a higher percentage score.
I am sure this post has a lot errors and fragments etc. and I will fix it later but if you have any questions I will drop in a lot today since I have to do a communication outline, speech and presentation (haven't started YET due by midnight). I will try my best to help those taking it in the future (especially if yours is tomorrow!). Can't wait to be done with this project so I can celebrate. Good luck to you all! (especially Minokim) I have seen you on the boards lately leading up to my exam and I am sure you will do well. Don't take my word for it, take your "future" exam score. We had a lot of the same practice scores (I compared mine to yours a lot haha).
Verbal: What can I say? It is either hit or miss on the real day. I saw some collins on (LITERALLY word for word..I was shocked even though I read it multiple times on the board.) I got a 38% and it is embarrassing to say english was my first language. My vocabulary sucks and I knew going into here that this could make or break my score (make if I don't mess up to badly so it doesn't drag my composite score, or break if I get 1%). There isn't much to say here honestly. DO the collins as practice. Know the 6 bridges because that is all it is for the analogy section.
Biology: Again hit or miss. My friends and my parents wished me luck today on the test and walking into the test I knew I could have a great test (a test full of stuff I know) or stuff I never seen in my life. Biology is "the most random subject". I have no bio background other than anatomy (only part 1) and the freshman bio course we all took. I was unfortunate and didn't get dealt the hand (questions) I wanted but I still got a 64% (not happy since I have been doing well on the other stuff). Don't let my remarks discourage anyone else. I would recommend going over all the virus stuff in collins and go over the two viral chapters in the Kaplan book. WHY? Because it is 15% of your test and it is the shortest amount of information you can read the night before (for you july 18 PCAT takers). One question can bring up that percentage.
Chem: I am really good with chemistry but I used Chad's videos to brush up and Collins tests. Chad goes way beyond the scope for Ochem but kills it for the gen chem section. What you need to know? Gas laws, grams of something in a reaction to grams of something else (like if you have 12 grams of CO2, how many grams of O2 do you have using this formula etc.). Basically if you know pearsons and collins you are set. Know the acid derivatives. (if you have any questions PM me and I can try to help). Excited to say I got a 472 (I think) which is 99%. I am sure I missed around 3-4 cause I completely guessed on two of them.
Reading: WE all know pearson test 4 SUCKS! Before I elaborate on this section, I hate reading and get distracted EASILY. I am the person that reads a page or two of a textbook (studying) and then ease drop into my surroundings or day dream (ALL THE TIME!!!). When taking the last few practice tests, I was told by a friend that best way to avoid the problem is to pretend you are interested in the passage and use the mouse to navigate you. Making yourself interested in a passage even if it the worst passage ever still helps you. You can feel what the author is saying and will know what each paragraph contributes to the passage as a whole. It takes me 2-3 minutes to read each passage but the questions go by faster because of your "interest" in them. I hope I am making sense here because I don't know how to explain it. Basically interest=better understanding of the author and passage?? Tell me if this doesn't make sense or to elaborate etc and I will be glad to. I got an 84% (I believe) on this section.
Math: 92-93% in this section. I struggled with time before but got it down before test day. I had to relearn calculus since the last time I took it was in high school (3 years ago!). Pearson test 4 made me worry as I only had 30 seconds left when finishing. I guessed on 4 of them and made educated guesses on another 3. The best thing to do is if you know it answer it, if you don't click and flag. I did that, had plenty of time to look at flags and am proud to say that I had a WHOLE 4 minutes remaining.
Writing: I just looked at the writing section yesterday. I kid you not, I looked at how to format it and looked the examples Kaplan gave. My topic was pretty easy and I wrote the four paragraphs Kaplan outlines and I hope I did well.
Composite:89%... the reason why it is this "high" is because my chemistry scaled score 472 (I think) raised the overall scaled score giving me a higher percentage score.
I am sure this post has a lot errors and fragments etc. and I will fix it later but if you have any questions I will drop in a lot today since I have to do a communication outline, speech and presentation (haven't started YET due by midnight). I will try my best to help those taking it in the future (especially if yours is tomorrow!). Can't wait to be done with this project so I can celebrate. Good luck to you all! (especially Minokim) I have seen you on the boards lately leading up to my exam and I am sure you will do well. Don't take my word for it, take your "future" exam score. We had a lot of the same practice scores (I compared mine to yours a lot haha).
Now that I read this I have to agree with that bio part. There was a little more than I would have liked! For QA I struggled with time on pearson 4 but had time remaining on the real PCAT. Experimental questions, I would click a random one and move on. IT DOES NOT HURT YOUR SCORE! I forgot to mention on the chemistry section I clicked randomly (because it wouldnt let me leave it blank) and got a 99. The bio and chem only have 8 passage based questions each all of which were experimental. There is NOT more than 8 passage based questions on the PCAT. Trust me I tripled checked and counted haha. It is exactly like the pearson tests after the update. two passages-4 questions each PER section
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I have it and I'd say it's extracted straight from practice test 4, nothing new there so don't waste your money like I did.
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Jaymin8, was there any disease-bacteria name matching question?
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My test is in about 2 hours 
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You'll do well, you've worked hard for this!! Best of luck!!My test is in about 2 hours
I am so mad at the way they are giving composite scores! A girl I know got 88% but did worse than me in bio but did little better on verbal
My scores were
va 382 18
bio 435 92
reading 395 41
quan 430 91
chemistry 438 93
composite 416 79
I am beyond disappointed! the school I want to go to requires mini of 25% on verbal! You did very good tho! Great job!
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What school is it that you wish to apply to? You could try contacting the admission team about your score for advices since your science score are really good.
hey all! I just got back from my exam! I think I did pretty bad on the essay to be honest which is my own fault because I didn't practice any essay prompts like I should have, but I can't complain because here are my scores:
VA: 432 (91%ile)
Bio: 430 (89%ile)
RC: 417 (81%ile)
QA: 447 (97%ile)
Chem: 455 (98%ile)
Composite: 97%ile!
I almost ran out of time for math. I had 30 seconds left to do the last question and no time to go back to review. I had about 8 minutes to review for reading and chemistry. Overall, the questions were really fair and there was nothing that I felt was completely out of the blue. I thought the biology was hard and more detailed that I practiced. But then again, I have not taken physiology, biochemistry, or microbiology. I used Dr. Collins, PCAT destroyer (mainly for math and chemistry), Kaplan for biology, and the 3 pearson practice exams to study and I felt like all of those were very helpful and very prevalent. Like someone else mentioned, some of the analogies were word for word from Dr. Collins, so review that list before you take the exam! I just read through it a couple times and I was able to recognize several.
Good luck to the rest of you!
VA: 432 (91%ile)
Bio: 430 (89%ile)
RC: 417 (81%ile)
QA: 447 (97%ile)
Chem: 455 (98%ile)
Composite: 97%ile!
I almost ran out of time for math. I had 30 seconds left to do the last question and no time to go back to review. I had about 8 minutes to review for reading and chemistry. Overall, the questions were really fair and there was nothing that I felt was completely out of the blue. I thought the biology was hard and more detailed that I practiced. But then again, I have not taken physiology, biochemistry, or microbiology. I used Dr. Collins, PCAT destroyer (mainly for math and chemistry), Kaplan for biology, and the 3 pearson practice exams to study and I felt like all of those were very helpful and very prevalent. Like someone else mentioned, some of the analogies were word for word from Dr. Collins, so review that list before you take the exam! I just read through it a couple times and I was able to recognize several.
Good luck to the rest of you!
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One of my biggest concerns is the computerized testing. I've been doing most of my test via pen and paper and i felt like doing the pearson tests online was a bit of a handicap because i felt like the UI (user interface) sucked. I felt like navigation took up a few seconds each time I had to move the page down to look at the whole question+answers. I was wondering how are the computerized tests setup? Are they the same layout as the online pearson tests or are they something completely different?
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Was your preliminary score close to your Kaplan score? I did both Kaplan tests and got 422 for the first one and 425 for the second one. Idk if that's indicative of how I'll do on the actual though...
They are relatively similar. However, for RC, the passage is on the left side of the screen and the questions are on the right. For the passage based questions in biology and chemistry, they were similar to pearson in that the passage was above and the questions were below
It was quite similar. My preliminary was 10 above the Kaplan but that is probably because I spent more time studying for VA after I took kaplan's which really helped bring my score up.
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THANK GOD. I hate the RC setup. Im sure time lost in the Pearson online (and some wrong answers too) attributed to the fact that i had to scroll the passage down every time i needed to take a quick look back.
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VA 392 (33)
BIO 421 (79)
RC 386 (26)
QA 480 (99)
CHEM 463 (99)
COMPOSITE 428 (93)
English is not my first language. But I came to the US when i was 13 so i guess that is not an excuse..
i rarely read anything and i just relied on Dr. Collins and pearson 3 tests.
I memorized all the words in list from Dr. Collins and analogies.
Some analogies and sentence completion were exactly same as Dr. Collins.
For bio, i used Dr. Collins and Kaplan bio part. (only used bio part for Kaplan blue book)
and just re-read kaplan and took notes.
For chem, First i used Chad's video to refresh it (but after taking practice test, i think this is way too much, especially organic chemistry part. but it is good material for sure). Then i just did Dr. collins all the way.
didnt really study for math. I was always good with it. finish every tests with like 15-20 minutes left.
BUT, PCAT was more difficult. I could have gotten higher, if i had more time. Ended up guessing like 5 questions at the end without even reading questions.
PCAT math questions are longer compared to any other problem or practice tests. So just flag every quesiton that has like 4-5 sentences then do easy ones first.
Good luck everyone!!
BIO 421 (79)
RC 386 (26)
QA 480 (99)
CHEM 463 (99)
COMPOSITE 428 (93)
English is not my first language. But I came to the US when i was 13 so i guess that is not an excuse..
i rarely read anything and i just relied on Dr. Collins and pearson 3 tests.
I memorized all the words in list from Dr. Collins and analogies.
Some analogies and sentence completion were exactly same as Dr. Collins.
For bio, i used Dr. Collins and Kaplan bio part. (only used bio part for Kaplan blue book)
and just re-read kaplan and took notes.
For chem, First i used Chad's video to refresh it (but after taking practice test, i think this is way too much, especially organic chemistry part. but it is good material for sure). Then i just did Dr. collins all the way.
didnt really study for math. I was always good with it. finish every tests with like 15-20 minutes left.
BUT, PCAT was more difficult. I could have gotten higher, if i had more time. Ended up guessing like 5 questions at the end without even reading questions.
PCAT math questions are longer compared to any other problem or practice tests. So just flag every quesiton that has like 4-5 sentences then do easy ones first.
Good luck everyone!!
Your scores are so weird. I don't mean that as an insult, they are great tho. My sub section scores were very similar to yours and end up with 79...
VA 382 18
bio 435 92
Rc 395 41
QA 430 91
CHEM 438 93
I am guessing they gave you extra points for getting in 99's
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yeah i know it is weird. i hope it doesnt change once official thing comes out.
cuz i always thought 430+ = 90+%.
But maybe i think getting 480 and 463 ss from two 99% subsections raised my composite up.
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your scores mean thats how you did on PCAT. we all got a sheet of paper after the exam.
maybe you can post your scores here like everyone did to find out how you did
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thats pretty good! You got an 88 composite!
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You kidding? That's excellent!! Good job!!
